Stewart will be honored at the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Inductions & Awards Banquet in May
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 2022
COLORADO SPORTS HALL OF FAME HONORS NIKOLA JOKIĆ FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR AND 2021 COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES OF YEAR
DENVER — Nikola Jokić, the first NBA Most Valuable Player in the history of the Denver Nuggets, will be among those honored at the 57th annual Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Banquet, May 4 at the Hilton Denver City Center (1701 California St.).
Following voting early this year, the Selection Committee of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame named Jokić the Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year. The Selection Committee also picked Colorado collegiate standouts Trey McBride (Colorado State football) and Mahala Norris (Air Force Academy runner), along with high school honorees Gavin Sawchuk (Valor Christian football) and Riley Stewart (Cherry Creek runner) as Athletes of the Year. Skier Tyler Carter (“TC”) will be the recipient of the Hall of Fame’s Athlete with Disabilities Award.
Jokić and the other 2021 Athletes of the Year will be honored at the 2022 banquet along with the newest Colorado Sports Hall of Fame inductees: Ed McCaffrey, Carol Callan, Chuck Williams, Darnell McDonald, Roger Kinney and DaVarryl Williamson.
Jokić set the standard in the NBA during the 2020-21 season, winning the MVP vote in a landslide. The center from Serbia landed 91 of the 101 first-place votes cast for the award, which is based on regular-season performance. Jokic thus became the lowest draft pick ever to earn the league’s MVP honor after being chosen No. 41 overall in 2014. Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game for the regular season, in which he played all 72 games and shot 38.8 percent from 3-point territory and posted 16 triple-doubles. And in the 2021-22 games played in the 2021 calendar year, Jokić’s numbers were very similar: 25.7 points, 14 rebounds and 7.2 assists per contest. Jokic led the Nuggets to the Western Conference semifinals in 2021 after they went to the conference finals in 2020. He started in the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, earning an All-Star spot for the third time overall.
McBride made a statement in his final season playing tight end for the CSU football team. The Fort Morgan product caught 90 passes for 1,121 yards this past season, marking one of the best offensive performances in program history. And with that, the honors and accolades started rolling in. He earned All-Mountain West Conference first-team honors for the second time. Then he was voted the nation’s top tight end, landing the John Mackey Award. He joined Greg Myers (1995 Jim Thorpe Award) as a CSU player who has earned such a major national honor. And to cap things off, he became the first CSU football player — and one of just five in MWC history — to land unanimous All-America status.
Norris stood out in a major way in both track and cross country for Air Force in 2021. Over a period of four months as a senior, she won an NCAA title in the steeplechase and also earned All-America honors in cross country (fourth place) and in the indoor 5,000-meter run (also fourth). Those last two accomplishments came just three days apart — and in different states. In addition, she captured wins in all three of the aforementioned events at the Mountain West Conference level, establishing meeting records in the steeplechase and 5,000. And she advanced to the steeplechase finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Norris is the first AFA female to claim an NCAA Division I title in a running event. In addition, she became the first female from the Academy to earn the Mountain West’s Athlete of the Year award — which covers 10 sports.
Sawchuk was named the state’s top high school football player by Gatorade for the second time, becoming the first such back-to-back Colorado honoree since fellow Valor Christian standout Christian McCaffrey. He also earned the Denver Post’s Gold Helmet Award. Sawchuk, who will play his college football at the University of Oklahoma, rushed for 2,004 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior in leading Valor to its second straight Class 5A runner-up finish. Sawchuk finished his high school career with 5,724 yards rushing — which broke McCaffrey’s school record — and 82 TDs overall.
Stewart won four 5A state track & field titles as a Cherry Creek junior last spring — individually in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200, and as part of the 3,200 relay team. She was subsequently selected the state’s top female track athlete by Gatorade after earning the same award for cross country for two straight seasons. She followed that up by capturing her third consecutive 5A state cross country title in the fall, as well as an Eastbay Midwest Regional championship. The Stanford-bound runner placed fifth in the Eastbay national cross country championships in December.
Carter is a two-time Paralympian for the U.S. in alpine skiing and hopes to become a three-time Paralympic competitor in March in Beijing. Carter was born without a fibula bone and had his right leg amputated below the knee at the age of 1. Thanks to the efforts of the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports and the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD), he found his competitive calling in skiing and attended his first ski camp at Winter Park Resort with the NSCD at the age of 10. After graduating from high school, he moved to Colorado to train full time with the NSCD and quickly made inroads as an adaptive skier. After attending the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver on a scholarship, Carter represented the U.S. while vying at the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. Since then, he’s competed in the 2015 World Championships, World Cups and the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games, earning multiple top-20 finishes in the process. Carter plans to retire from alpine ski racing at the end of the 2021-22 season.
Tickets for the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Banquet are $200 each and Sponsor tables start at $2,500. For additional ticket and table information, please phone the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (www.coloradosports.com or 720-258-3535). The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame & Museum is located at Gate 1 on the west side of Empower Field at Mile High at 1701 Bryant Street in Denver.
Since its inception in 1965, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 270 individuals prior to October’s selection meeting. The first class of inductees featured Earl “Dutch” Clark, Jack Dempsey and former Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. Alonzo Babers, Bob Gebhard, George Gwozdecky, Terry Miller, Erin Popovich and Lindsey Vonn were inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in September.
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